alm21’s BodyBlog

At the beginning of the week, I set some goals for myself.  Although I haven’t hit the target spot-on I’m feeling good about what I have completed.  I’ve laid off the evening cocktail hour and substituted with green tea and PM protein shakes.  My diet has been clean other than some homemade chocolate chip cookies Monday night (I have my weaknesses).  Calories were low that day so it wasn’t damaging, just discouraging.  My previous blog stated my goals for the week.  Below is the highlight of the goals and what was accomplished.

Monday AM:  Initial Goal: Get up early but don’t go in (getting up early on Monday puts me on track for the week).
Result: Completed!  That was easy. J
Monday PM: Initial Goal: 1hr Cardio, Abs (goal: 40 min on treadmill plus other cardio).
Result: Completed 1/2hr Ab work.  Cardio included 5 min walk, 40 min run at 6mph (4 miles) and 20 minutes walking at an incline.  I completed over 5 miles total.  I was excited as it gave me hope that I will be running 6 miles in 60 minutes soon.
Tuesday AM: Initial Goal: 30-40 min cardio, Abs
Result:  Slept in!  The run the night before knocked me out!
Tuesday PM: Initial Goal: Legs
Result: Completed but had to get done in under an hour or so.  Did squats, bar bell lunges, Good Mornings and calf extensions on leg press (my new favorite calf exercise).
 
Wednesday AM: Initial Goal: 30-40 min cardio, Abs
Result: Slept in again!  WTF?  I need to set the alarm – I normally wake up at 5:00am without alarms but this week I’ve been getting up at 6:00am which doesn’t give me enough time.
Wednesday PM: Initial Goal: Chest – some light triceps
Result: Great workout today!  The rest paid off.  I did flat bench dumbbell presses (worked with the 110lb’rs – striving to get to 120lbs), incline dumbbell presses, cable flyes (standing but incline motion), upright seated fly machine (felt the pump), one-arm standing upright fly (a new favorite – I really can focus on the pump and I’m trying to workout a chest inbalance) and I finished with close-grip flat bench press.  I also did a bunch of abs mixed in through the chest workout.  I don’t know how to describe them but I killed myself.  After all of that, I finished off with the treadmill – 2.5min walk, 22.5 min run and 5 min cool down walk.  Whew!  What a workout!
So, I’ll push ahead and will set the alarm clock tonight.  We’ll see how the rest of the week goes.

So, the holiday weekend is over but it’s still a holiday month!  The social events are stacked up which means there are plenty of opportunities for self-indulgence.  Knowing that I won’t be a model of perfection with my diet this month, I’m going to set some simple goals for the work week.

I am able to eat clean from breakfast to dinner hands down.  However, since I historically have problems with snacking post-dinner, that’s going to be my focus this week.  So, in short, my week’s goal is to avoid alcoholic beverages and junk-snacking during the evenings this week. 

Regarding my workouts, I have been doing really good – almost too good.  Yesterday, at the gym (back day) I felt burned-out.  I don’t know if it is because I over-trained this week, or the 3 days of Xmas preparations (cut down Xmas trees for the family, put lights on the house, etc.), or the take-out Chinese food from Saturday night or all of the above (most likely).

Today is my cardio day.  I’ll pass on the morning cardio session which is usually shorter and perform a longer cardio session in the evening.  Below are my planned workouts for the week.  I’m going to try to fit in Ab work everyday with my cardio, we’ll see how it goes.

Monday AM:  Get up early but don’t go in (getting up early on Monday puts me on track for the week).

Monday PM: 1hr Cardio, Abs (goal: 40 min on treadmill plus other cardio)

Tuesday AM: 30-40 min cardio, Abs

Tuesday PM: Legs

Wednesday AM: 30-40 min cardio, Abs

Wednesday PM: Chest – some light triceps

Thursday AM: 30-40 min cardio, Abs

Thursday PM: Arms – biceps/triceps

Friday AM: 30-40 min cardio, Abs

Friday PM: Shoulders

Saturday: OFF – way too busy this day!

Sunday: Back, biceps & Abs

It’s been a good week so far. Monday was my cardio-only day (1hr of cardio) and Tue/Wed I managed to get two workouts done per day (cardio in the morning and lift in the evening.  I ate clean except for last night when I had a couple beers with my Cobb salad while out with friends and family. 

This morning, I got up at 5:30am and hit the gym for 40 minutes on the treadmill (5min warm up walk / 30 minute run / 5 min cool down) and some lifts to work the biceps.  I normally would have excused myself from working out today but I’m proud I didn’t as it felt great.  It also encouraged my wife to go after I got home – it’s infectious!  So, I plan on repeating, maintaining cardio and lifting throughout the holiday weekend.

This weekend was a tough one when it came to my diet.  I ate very well for breakfast and lunch meals however the dinners were in the tank.  I had pizza and beer Friday night at my wife’s company function.  Saturday, I had rib eye, spinach, mashed potatoes and beer/wine at a second work function for my wife.  I was looking forward to Sunday’s dinner as it was going to be homemade beef stew.  However, we started it late and our neighbors asked if we wanted to go out for pizza with them and the kids.  I was really dragging my feet but was out-voted since dinner was running late and we had a free pizza coming to us from a previous trip there where we received terrible service.  So, a disciplined person would have had the salad bar with water.  Not me!  I had, you guessed it, pizza and beer.  So it’s no surprise that despite regular workouts and proper eating in the morning and afternoon that I have sabotaged my efforts at night.  Night time is the worst time of the day for me.  My cravings kick in and they are magnified if I have any amount of alcohol.  If I can manage my evening mistakes, I’m sure I could start breaking through my barriers.  However, easier said than done.  My goal for the week is to take charge of my evenings and avoid the temptations. 

So, I’ve come to realize with the great features this site has, one more tool that I think would be cool is an option to enter meal ideas/favorite recipes on our Bspace pages.  With the challenge to find good food choices I would be interested in knowing other people’s favorite bites and recipes.

For example, after a good workout today, I was on the go with the family and we needed to stop down for some grub.  Time was limited so we went to Subway and this is what I ordered (I always get this since they discontinued the low-carb wraps L ).

6” wheat bread

Double oven-roasted chicken breast (2 pieces).  It’s not sliced deli-style chicken, just a whole piece of breast meat.

PepperJack Cheese

Spinach

Shredded Carrots

Pickles

Black Olives

Red Onions

Black Pepper

Dijon

That’s it and I love it!  Grant it, the olives and cheese have fat and the pickles are probably high in sodium yet I’m not too concerned since the quantities are small.

What do you like to get when you are on the run?

Killer leg workout yesterday - they still feel numb!

Leg Press - 5 sets of 12 reps (360lbs)

Leg Press Calve Extensions (new favorite) - 4 sets of 12 reps (270lbs)

Squats - 5 sets of 8 reps (225lb)

Barbell Lunges - 4 sets of 10 reps (135lbs)

Good Mornings - 4 sets of 10 reps (95lb, 100lb, 105lb, 110lb)

Leg Extensions (quads) 5 sets - 4 @ 10rep 1 @ 15 rep (145, 160, 170, 160, 110lb)

Leg Curls (hams) - 4 sets @ 10 reps (110lb, 115lb, 120lb, 115lb)

Standing Calve Raises - 4 sets of 12reps (135lb)

30 Minutes Cardio on Cybex Eleptical - moderate intensity

Total Gym Time: 2hr

I recently bought a Tanita body composition scale so I can monitor my BF% and hydration.  I’m not sure I should have done that!  At the time I got it, the gym trainer measured my BF at 19% yet the scale said 23%.  I’ve slacked on my eating discipline over the last 4+ weeks and the scale is currently showing 217lbs/24% BF/ 52% Hydration.  So, even though it doesn’t tell me what I want to hear, I’m going to use it to monitor my progress and adjust my Bspace profile accordingly.

Does anyone else use Tanita scales and are they accurate (or close to) for you?

What a great soccer season it has been!  It certainly hasn’t been without adversity though.  I coach my daughter’s team with her best friends dad (U11 – 5thGrade).  We have been coaching these girls for 4 years and could have never expected what this season had in store for us.

When we won the first game of the season I thought that we were off to a good season.  When we tied the second game, I thought we would continue to have a decent season.  Then in the third game, my daughter broke her arm but we didn’t know until after the game.  You see my daughter crashed into the opposition’s defender and landed hard on the wrist.  She had mobility in her wrist and she wasn’t in agonizing pain.  She sat on the sideline icing her wrist and pleading with me to let her back into the game – what a player!  Against by better judgment, I let her go back in (and probably only because it was my kid – I wouldn’t have taken that chance with somebody else’s child).  So, guess what, we won the game.

From there on, we rolled through the competition this year.  My girls were playing the best soccer I have ever seen them play.  Our season was shaping up to be undefeated with the one tied game.  Well yesterday was our last game.  And my girls were given a gift.  The gift of redemption for we got to play the same team that tied us which was the only team in our schedule that we played twice.  To sweeten the pot, we played them at their home field. 

So, I get a call a couple hours before the game.  One of our goalies and the one we planned to play the whole game in that position (also the other coach’s daughter and my daughter’s best friend) filled in for a player on a different team earlier in the day.  Well, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  She had an accident in the game and was in ER with a possible broken ankle!  Oh man our girls have endured too much this season (BTW, my daughter only was required to sit out one game because of her broken arm).

Now I don’t have our goalie and we had our biggest game of the season.  If we won this game not only do we finish with an undefeated season but we proved that we could beat the only team to tie us.

Great teams aren’t built around an individual.  You have a great team when a group of people with a common goal come together to leverage their collective skills and passion to rise above the challenges put it front of them.

Well, back to yesterday’s game…The team we played was tough.  I was frustrated as they were pushing my girls and the referee wasn’t calling it.  The coach of the other team was less than pleasant towards his girls (it is unfortunate how often I see negative coaching).  We battled and won the game 3 to 0!  My girls were so excited, what a blast!  So we finished with an amazing undefeated season!  Here is a stunning statistic – this year we outscored the competition with a season total of 65 goals to 17 goals (great defense and offense).  I’m a proud coach and even more so, a proud father.  My girls rock! Go HotShots!!! 

I recently bought some wrist hooks and I’m hooked!  Currently, I’m using them for barbell shrugs.  Previously, I was limiting the weight for shrugs due to weaker forearm strength.  Now, with the hooks, I can stack the weight and my traps are feeling it!  They have been sore which is something I haven’t felt in a long time.  Now, I’m not using the hooks for all of my sets, just on the heavy ones and after my forearms begin to fail.  I’m thinking of different ways I can incorporate this new "tool" to help me get over the hump in other lifts - pull ups, dumbbell shrugs, bent over rows?